Tag: personal life

In my world, for the last nine years, Valentine’s Day has been the day of Sophia, my sweetheart. It’s her birthday and frankly it’s nice to focus on that and skip out on the excessive commercialism of Valentine’s Day. Sure that’s kind of a cop out, but it’s worked for almost a decade so I’m rolling with it.

This year, it feels like EVERY day is child-focused. They are just so god-damn busy. The birthday girl is currently right in the middle of rehearsal for a highly anticipated performance in Suessical the Musical, Jr. We are all very excited, but this M-Th 20 minutes drive for 2 hour rehearsal shit in the worst winter storm in years is getting old. Then of course there are her hip-hop classes, and Garrett’s basketball practices and games. Luckily Tuck just wrapped up his basketball season and hasn’t quite started baseball yet. I’m really not sure how much else we can juggle. With weekend games up here, the littler kids have been with the moms almost exclusively. I love seeing these kids involved in stuff they are passionate about and I genuinely adore having them be active and actively finding their selves. It fulfills me all the way to the land of mommy tears.

That said, I miss my freaking wife. I miss family dinners that are simultaneously relaxing and chaotic. I miss having a glass or two of wine and then a couple more snuggled on the couch watching This is Us after the littles have been tucked in and the bigs have locked themselves back into their caves.

Tonight will be no exception to the chaos. There is dance practice and play rehearsal, and of course we have the usual ruckus of last minute finishing Valentine’s and birthday treats. The bigs are going all in and having their “significant others” over to hang out before heading to Skate Plaza. Fun little fact: Tucker (6th grade) confided in me that he has planned this in hope of getting to do a little hand-holding during the slow songs. It’s sure to be a glorious, helter-skelter of a night and I’m here for it. And I’m here for the after party. After the madness of getting all of these things done in that never-large-enough window of post-school/work to kiddo bedtime, I’m planning to celebrate a romantic version of Galentine’s Day with my beautiful bride. We may not get there until 9 or 9:30, but at some point today I am gifting my wife with some pretty rad gifts and toasting her with her favorite champagne.

I literally can’t recall ever buying much on Valentine’s Day, even before Sophia’s birth, but this year I went for it and I’m really fucking excited about these gifts. They are personal, fun, cool, sorta-romantic, but not cheesily so, AND supportive of LGBT small businesses/artists. Do I have your attention now?

First, I ordered her the underwear all the cool-girl lesbians wear, but neither of us have ever gotten. You know who I mean- TomBoyX. Hell, I even did the right thing and ordered the appropriate size based on real measurements and followed the size chart. (Adulting takes so much more time than just winging it… :P) AND I got her the styles and colors I thought she’d like best instead of what I’d pick for me. C’mon, that’s harder than it sounds. Anyway, I know she will love them. I probably should have checked the shipping option for discreet packaging, cuz now she already knows she is getting somethings from there. But she thinks she is ONLY getting something from TomBoyX, and that’s where she is wrong.

I have been following an artist from Portland, OR, Veronica Casson, on Instagram (@saltandfog) for at least a year. I love her style. I love that she does so many diverse and inclusive works, and that she is part of the LGBT community. And did I mention that I really, really love her style? Yeah ‘cuz I do. I’ve tried to look into getting commissioned work done by her before, but it’s never worked out. This last week she offered a Valentine’s Day special for a couples custom piece to be sent digitally and in plenty of time for Valentine’s Day. It was limited to 3 customers and I freaking got one! I got my proof yesterday and I’m delighted. It’s perfect. She caught our spirit and even managed to incorporate all our signature accessories/style.

Don’t even try to lie to me. This so un-fucking-believably adorable and I love it!

I need to have a better print done, but in order to give her something tangible tonight I printed a copy already and framed it. Oh god, I really hope she loves it as much as I do.

I feel like it’s the perfect way to celebrate Galentine’s Day with my favorite Gal.

Under normal circumstances I’d write this but schedule it for tomorrow, but it’s time sensitive as I’m already a few days behind. I LOVE a good social media based challenge. I have done a couple whether for health or writing or photos or art or self love and it’s great way to find connect with people of similar interests and gain new followers. You know if you’re shallow enough to care about such things. 😛 😉

My favorite of all the challenges are definitely the self love ones. No matter where I’m at, those challenges always come at a good time. It’s always beneficial. I always grow and I always get to learn about other women and what they are doing to be totally awesome in the world.

I stumbled up on this particular challenge after seeing day one posted by my ex-husband’s cousin’s wife. (That’s a thing). Her photo was captivating her essay of a caption was compelling and after an other day or so of watching I had to join in, even if late.

It’s only day three, so join in. Do the first two days of challenges like I did, or just go right for challenge 3 (Spoiler alert: It’s treat yo’self!). If nothing else, check out mine or #selfloveweek and read some cool shit from the hearts of some amazing women. Click on my picture above to go straight to source of the challenge, the Instagram page of Mel Wells.

Side note, even if i go totally silent on the actual blog, I typically use insta as my mini blog and you can follow the life and times of my two mom crew.

Have you ever had you perfect job? The kind you just know was good for you? I’m not talking about those MLM schlepping folks always hyping their #motivationmonday and waking up everyday blasting social media about kicking this day’s ass like a boss. Or maybe that’s how they really feel every goddamn day and i’m just bitchy. But what I’m talking about is *almost* feeling that way without your “coach” telling you what to post of facebook. I’m talking about going from restless nights and anxiety at work to being able to gush to even yo mama about what you do every day. Because that is where I am *finally* at.

Selling radio was a good gig for the time. It paid pretty decent and I got the job exactly when I needed it and it allowed me to move in with Terra and not feel like a totally irresponsible sort of U-Haul lesbian. For that I am grateful. When I sold TV, I had a badass, but gracious boss. He was always cheering for me, whether in my professional or personal life. It was exactly perfect for having tiny kiddos and then separating and eventually divorcing Morgan. It was good for going back and forth between Terra’s and my house and having all the flexibility I needed. But…. Holy fuck I dreaded media sales. I always felt like I *could* be good at it, but 98% of the time, I was not. Which made me hate it and then add in the shitty parts of outside sales… not good.

I pretty much felt like I would handle it. I would survive that level of miserableness because I needed to contribute and there was no other choice. But seriously people, I was working 8-5, M-F, with about an hour of commute. That’s well over 50 hours of my waking life away from my family and basically hating life, trudging through the day. It’s fucking hard to just drop that at the door. My miserable 50 hours were affecting my previously pleasant hours. Pretty sure Terra had to deal with me getting teary and whiny every time I hit glass two or three of wine in the evenings.

I started applying and interviewing elsewhere. For awhile that actually made it worse. Every goddamn time I made it through interviews and second interviews only to find out I wasn’t their first choice, I’d come home mopey to Terra about being “such a loser.” Until the day I was a was someone’s first choice. The company that finally picked me, is the best one I could have picked for myself. I’ll get to the parts about what I actually do, but listen to the perks: four tens every week. I have three day weekends Every. Single. Week. 15 minute commute. My own office (that’s adorable). I get to wear basically whatever I want, including show off tattoos or rainbow hair. And still some flexibility to work from home when necessary.

As for the job itself, well it’s a beautiful combination of marketing, public relations, social media, sales, account management, fashion, and a dash of travel. Cash me at NYC Bridal Fashion Week, how bout dah? I literally spend my every day promoting these babies in some sense of the word:

Fun fact: I named three of these gowns. The bottom, super sexy one is named “Terra.” The second and third ones are named for my daughter and step-daughter. 🙂 You can check out the full collection here or our website here.

So yup, that’s it folks. I spend my time sharing these photos, working photo shoots, scheduling trunk shows, creating marketing materials, and looking at pretty things. Our team is small but awesome and I genuinely love what I do. Also I don’t have to spend my nights zoning out on the Wheel of Fortune or Design Home apps, so that’s cool too.

Hello

Hi! I'm Laurel. I"m not exactly Carol Brady, but I am one of the moms of a big, blended family. I do my damn best to help keep the kids alive, nourished, and adjusted while trying to keep my own hair and style on point.

That may be where the similarities end, cuz I never saw ol' Carol take shots of whiskey or drop an eff bomb. Such is life. :)